Keyboard type musical instrument

ABSTRACT

The musical instrument has a keyboard with six lower digitals per octave span; there being not more than one upper digital between each pair of adjacent lower digitals. The lower digitals of the keyboard play a six-tone scale obtained by omitting one tone from the seven tone diatonic scale. In the preferred embodiment, the lower digitals play the hexachord scale, obtained by omitting the leading tone from the diatonic scale, and upper digitals play the tones D , E , G , A , and B. It is shown that reduction of the number of notes from seven to six makes possible a compact and easily learned system of notation while retaining most merits of the diatonic scale.

llnit i. tesi 11 3,865,004 Feb. 11, 1975 KEYBOARD TYPE MUSICALINSTRUMENT [76] Inventor: Donald K. Coles, 2505 Capitol Ave.,

Fort Wayne, lnd. 46806 [22] Filed: July 10, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 486,973

Primary Examiner Lawrence R. Franklin [57] ABSTRACT The musicalinstrument has a keyboard with six lower digitals per octave span;therebeing not more than one upper digital between each pair of adjacentlower digitals.

The lower digitals of the keyboard play a six-tone scale obtained byomitting one tone from the seven tone diatonic scale. In the preferredembodiment, the lower digitals play the hexachord scale, obtained byomitting the leading tone from the diatonic scale, and upper digitalsplay the tones D b E b G b A b and B. It is shown that reduction of thenumber of notes from seven to six makes possible a compact and easilylearned system of notation while retaining most merits of the diatonicscale.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures i QCTAVE SPAN OCTAVE 5PAN SHEET 10F 2 OCTAVESPAN CDEFGABCDEFGABCD OCTAVE SPAN OCTAVE SYDAN F/G'l f0. F re ED Tl doCB 50 [a 5 111! fa E U do fa so 5? y mi E Q d re I C D t: O B 1a A so eF/GZ CDEF-GACDEFGACD l--v OCTAVE SPAN OCTAVE SPAN-1v PATENTEDFEB1 1 M5 73.865.004

SHEET 20F 2 SO 6 d re liq S c 50 1a 0 G f v F 11' E d Y'e 50 G Q d F6 mifa g E 50 10L 0 A; I mi F E By yon bonnie banks} panel by yon Bonniebmegwhgre The KEYBOARD TYPE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION The standard musical keyboard used to key individual tones hashad much the same configuration for the last 400 years. That keyboardhas seven lower digitals and five upper digitals per octave span.Proposed changes have generally been in the direction of increasing itscomplexity. So far as I am aware, all configurations proposed by othershave included at least twelve digitals per octave span or at least sevenlower digitals per octave span.

My musical instrument has a keyboard with reduced octave span containingonly six lower digitals. It has not more than one upper digital betweeneach pair of adjacent lower digitals. In the preferred embodiment, themusical instrument includes a pitch selecting mechanism.

The origin of the standard keyboard is obscure. The article on Keyboardin the 1954 edition of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians statesThe permanence of the width of the octave again has been determined bythe average span of the hand, and a Ruckers harpsichord of 1614 measuresbut a small fraction of an inch less in the eight keys than a concertgrand pianoforte of the 20th century. We are without definiteinformation as to the origin of the keyboard The first keyboard would bediatonic When the row of sharps was introduced, and whether at once orby degrees, we do not know. We find them complete in a trustworthypictorial representation of the th century. A painting by Memling in theHospital of St. John at Burges, dated 1479, depicts the keyboard of aregal exactly as we have it in the arrangement of the upper keys in twosand threes." Pitch selecting mechanisms were developed in the 19thcentury.

I have found that children rapidly acquire appreciation of music if theyare encouraged to experiment and improvise simple melodies and harmoniesin a hexachord scale, derived from the diatonic scale.by the omission ofits leading tone. Elimination ofa semitonal interval from the diatonicscale decreases the likelihood of getting unwanted pitch combinationsand increases the ability to pick out a tune. Early training ofrelatively young children is possible if they are allowed to sing rotesongs and simultaneously play them on a keyboard instrument. An exampleof a rote song included in the hexachord scale is This Old Man ComesRolling Home. The keyboard serves as a direct graphical representationof tonal relationships for the singer; singing with expression andbreathing develop the qualities of intensity and phrasing in the player.This approach, attempted on the traditional keyboard, is marred by thedanger of hitting the wrong digital, with its distracting influences.This danger is reduced on my simplified keyboard.

When children are learning sight singing, they become confused by thetraditional musical notation which sometimes represents a particularnote on a line of a staff, and at other times in a space between thelines. More confusion is caused when a boy who has been trained to singon the treble clef must later learn to sing on the bass clef, where thelines and spaces are differently labeled. In music written for myhexachord instrument, some of my notes are always assigned to lines, theother notes are always assigned to spaces.

Moreover, the labeling of the lines in the lower staff is the same asthe labeling in the upper staff.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION My invention is a keyboard-type musicalinstrument such as a piano or organ which is specially adapted to playon the lower digitals a six tone scale, which is derived from thediatonic scale by omitting one of its seven tones. In the preferredembodiment, the lower digitals play the hexachord scale, which iscomposed of the first six tones of the diatonic scale. A compact andeasily learned system of notation is described, made possible byreduction of the number of notes from seven to six. The keyboardcontains six lower digitals per octave span, where the length of anoctave span is defined as the center-to-center distance between twodigitals which control tones an octave apart. (See FIG. 1) The keyboardcontains at most a single upper digital located between any pair ofadjacent lower digitals.

One object of my invention is to reduce the complexity of the musicalscale available on the lower digitals, to encourage melodic and harmonicimprovisation by children.

A second object of my invention is to provide a reduced musical scalewhich permits use of a simple and compact notation. In this notation,one group of notes is always represented by lines of a staff and othernotes are always represented by spaces between the lines. Moreover, aparticular note of the musical scale is always represented in the sameposition of the lower staff as it is in the upper staff.

FIG. 1 shows the traditional keyboard.

FIG. 2 shows the labeling of the lines and spaces in the traditionaltreble and bass clefs.

FIG. 3 shows my special keyboard for use with the hexachord scale.

FIG. 4 shows special notation for use with the hexachord scale and withmy musical instrument.

FIG. 5 shows music rewritten for my hexachord instrument.

A detailed description of the invention follows. Referring to FIG. 1 thetraditional keyboard has seven lower digitals per octave span. Althoughdefined as a center-to-center distance, the octave span may of course bemeasured between any corresponding points of two digitals, controllingtones an octave apart, or between the cracks to the immediate left orright of these digitals.

Present keyboard instruments employ an equitempered scale with 12different pitches per octave span separated by equal musical intervalsof a semitone. The traditional keyboard with its seven lower digitalsand five upper digitals can play each of these 12 pitches per octavespan. In FIG. 1 the seven lower digitals to the left play the diatonicscale, which is characterized by the sequence of musical intervals of2-2-1-2-2-2-1 semitones.

These intervals add up to twelve semitones, so that the pitch to theright of the last interval is just one octave higher than the firstpitch of the sequence. The next seven lower digitals repeat the diatonicscale an octave higher, and so on.

In order to avoid ambiguities, I generally use the terms tone and pitchin a relative way to describe a musical sound relative to other tones ina musical scale. When I intend the term pitch in an absolute sense, Iuse the specific term absolute pitch." I reserve the term note for thelabel itself (such as C or D) which is used to specify a digital and thetone it activates. When a staff is used to record music on paper orblackboard, each musical note is indicated by a sign on the staff. Inthe traditional keyboard of FIG. 1, the seven lower digitals included inan octave spa'n are labeled C,D,E,F,G,A,B. FIG. 2 shows thecorrespondence of lines and spaces of the treble and brass staves withthe letter labels of the absolute pitches and, for the key of C, thesyllable names of the tones of the diatonic scale.

The traditional notation has the serious disadvantage that a particularnote may be positioned on either a line or a space, and it is positioneddifferently in the treble and bass staves. For example, the note E isplaced on the bottom line of the treble staff, but also in the fourthspace up on the treble staff and the third space up on the bass staff.Children find this notation confusing, especially when learning to singat sight or to play by ear. The large number of notes in thediatonicscale and the large distance between digitals an octave apartadd to their difficulties. It is easily understood then, that a largefraction of out children are unable to master the difficulties of sightsinging and playing.

In an attempt to reduce these difficulties l have constructed a reedorgan having a keyboard with a reduced octave span containing only sixlower digitals. These digitals play the hexachord scale, which is anatural scale comparatively easy to sing. Depending on where one startsit, the hexachord scale may be considered to be made up of the six tonesdo, re, mi, fa, so, la of the diatonic scale, or six tones do, re, mi,so, la, ti of the diatonic scale. I prefer the first of thesealternatives as a basis for my system of notation. The six syllables do,re, mi, fa, so, la and the labels C,D,E,F,G,A have a fixedcorrespondence with the six lower digitals in each octave span, as shownin FIGS. 3 and 4. This sequence of pitches corresponds to the sequenceof musical intervals 2-2-1-2-2-3 semitones.

In the four cases above where the interval between adjacent pitches ofthe pentatonic scale is two semitones, there can be only a single pitch.I label these pitches Db Eb ,Gl ,and Al they are controlled by fourupper digitals located between the adjacent lower digital pairs C-D,D-E, F-G, and GA respectively. In the single case where the intervalbetween adjacent pitches of the pentatonic scale is three semitones,there is a choice between two pitches to be controlled by the singleupper digital located between the adjacent lower digitals A and C. Ipreferably have this upper digital play the pitch B of the diatonicscale, which is missing from the hexachord scale. Since B is onesemitone below C, this digital and this pitch are labeled Cb in mysystem.

My notation employs the customary five-line staves as shown in FIG. 4.The note corresponding to the middle C digital lies on a ledger linebetween the two staves. The five lines of each staff represent the tonesE,G,C,E,G, all members of the major triad based on C. The spaces betweenthe lines in each staff represent the tones F,A,D,F. The first spaceabove the top line of each staff represents the tone A, and the spaceimmedi ately below the bottom line of each staff represents the tone D.FIG. 4 shows that the hexachord notation is somewhat more compact thanthe diatonic notation of FIG. 2; the hexachord notation requires only 3spaces per octave span, as compared with the customary three and onehalf spaces. The fact that six is divisible by two ensures that a notefalling on a line (or space) in one octave will also fall on a line (orspace) in all octaves.

The similarity of the notation in the upper and lower staves is relatedto the fact that two octave spans occupy six spaces. (one more than thenumber of lines in either staff) The clef symbols at the start of eachstaff are therefore similar, but they aredistinguishable from each otherby the dots below the upper symbol and above the lower symbol. Thesedots indicate the position of middle C digital and note; when the pitchselector is in its central position they also locate the absolute pitchof middle C. t

In the preferred embodiment, the upper digital between E and F isabsent. This irregularity provides a landmark for the player. Ofsix-note scales, only the whole tone scale can have six alternatingupper and lower digitals, all producing pitches in increasing order fromleft to right. But the whole tone scale lacks any musical intervals offourth or fifth, and it contains no natural focal point to serve in thedevelopment of tonal patterns.

As an aid to remembering which notes are on the TABLE 1 Lines of StaffSpaces of Staff primary notes secondary notes C,E,G D,F,A major triadminor triad do-mo-so ra-fa-la 7 Many well known melodies can be playedentirely on the lower digitals of my organ. FIG. 5 shows the beginningwords and music of a Scotch tune that is included in the hexachordscale. In this case the dot by the clef sign indicates that this staffis centered about middle C note and digital.

In the United States, the Sol-fa syllables are generally used in amovable do system, whereas in Continental Europe they are frequentlyused in a fixed do system, which associates'the syllables with fixednotes, fixed digitals, and fixed absolute pitches.

Tonality relationships can be easily taught by bringing singing childreninto early and intimate relationship with the keyboard of a piano ororgan. For this purpose, I propose to use the so-called fixed do systemwhich associates the Sol-fa syllables with fixed digitals of thekeyboard, but to dissociate the Solfa syllables from fixed absolutepitches. The advantages of the movable do system can be retained if thekeyboard instrument is provided with a pitch selecting mechanism. Inthis way, music for voice and keyboard instrument can always be writtenin the key" of C, without the troublesome key signature; by mechanicaltransposition the absolute pitch of the music can be adjusted to suitthe voice by means of a pitch selector. Accordingly, my reed organ isprovided with a transposing mechanism which moves the tone generatorassembly laterally with respect to the fixed keyboard. I

Pitch selecting mechanisms of this kind are well known. One is describedin my US. Pat. applic. No. 395,002.

With a keyboard containing several octaves of hexachord scale, it ispossible to start on six different lower digitals and obtain sequencesof musical intervals of 2,2,l,2,2,3 semitones, 2,l,2,2,3,2 semitones,l,2,2,3,2,2 semitones, 2,3,2,2,1,2 semitones, 3,2,2,l,2,2 semitones, and2,2,3,2,2,l semitones. I include all six of these sequences as differentmodes of the same hexachord scale. The first of the above modescorresponds to the tones, do,re,mi,fa,so,la of the diatonic scale, andis used as a basis for the system of notation of FIG. 4. The last of theabove modes corresponds to the tones do,re,mi,so,la,ti of diatonicscale. Since this mode starts five semitones above the starting point ofthe first mode, melodies based on this mode would have as keynote thenote F in the notation of FIG. 4.

While my invention has been described with reference to a reed organ, itis not restricted to this embodiment. The invention is applicable to anyother keyboard type musical instrument such as a piano or accordian. Theinstrument is not necessarily equipped with pitch selecting means. Theterm keyboard is used generically to include the pedalboard or clavierof an organ. The term digital" includes the pedal. The tones controlledby the upper digitals may be different from those chosen for thepreferred embodiment.

The instrument may be used to play different six-tone scales on itslowere digitals. Table 2 shows the hexachord scale and four othersix-tone scales derived from the diatonic scale by elimination of one ofits tones.

TABLE 2 Diatonic Tones Used Interval Sequence I claim:

1. A musical instrument having a plurality of tone generators whichproduce a sequence of pitches proceeding from low to high in anapproximately equitemperedscale, with 12 semitones per octave,

a keyboard having six lower'digitals per octave span, not more than oneupper digital disposed between two adjacent ones of said lower digitals,

said lower digitals being consecutively numbered from left to right,starting with lower digital number one to the left of said keyboard,said lower digital number one controlling a predetermined lowest pitchgenerated by one of said tone generators, each of said lower digitalswith a number N greater than six controlling a pitch one octave higherthan the pitch controlled by that lower digital which has a number equalto N-6, wherein the improvement comprises:

any six consecutive ones of said lower digitals play a six tone scalewhich is derived from the diatonic scale by the omission of one of itsseven tones.

2. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which:

lower digitals number two,, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively two, four, five, seven and nine semitones above said lowestpitch.

3. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which lower digitals number two,three, four, five and six control pitches respectively two, five, seven,nine and eleven semitones above said lowest pitch.

4. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which:

lower digitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively two, three, five, seven, and nine semitones above saidlowest pitch.

5. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which:

lower digitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively two, four, five, seven, and eleven semitones above saidlowest pitch.

6. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which:

lower digitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively four, five, seven, nine,

and eleven semitones above said lowest pitch. l l

1. A musical instrument having a plurality of tone generators whichproduce a sequence of pitches proceeding from low to high in anapproximately equitempered scale, with 12 semitones per octave, akeyboard having six lower digitals per octave span, not more than oneupper digital disposed between two adjacent ones of said lower digitals,said lower digitals being consecutively numbered from left to right,starting with lower digital number one to the left of said keyboard,said lower digital number one controlling a predetermined lowest pitchgenerated by one of said tone generators, each of said lower digitalswith a number N greater than six controlling a pitch one octave higherthan the pitch controlled by that lower digital which has a number equalto N6, wherein the improvement comprises: any six consecutive ones ofsaid lower digitals play a six tone scale which is derived from thediatonic scale by the omission of one of its seven tones.
 2. The musicalinstrument of claim 1 in which: lower digitals number two,, three, four,five, and six control pitches respectively two, four, five, seven andnine semitones above said lowest pitch.
 3. The musical instrument ofclaim 1 in which lower digitals number two, three, four, five and sixcontrol pitches respectively two, five, seven, nine and eleven semitonesabove said lowest pitch.
 4. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which:lower digitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively two, three, five, seven, and nine semitones above saidlowest pitch.
 5. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which: lowerdigitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively two, four, five, seven, and eleven semitones above saidlowest pitch.
 6. The musical instrument of claim 1 in which: lowerdigitals number two, three, four, five, and six control pitchesrespectively four, five, seven, nine, and eleven semitones above saidlowest pitch.